Bonhams must have employed some jokers to publicise their latest attempt to cash in on the buoyancy of contemporary African art in the global art market. The London auction house (est. 1793), which merged with rivals Phillips in 2001, have taken the opportunity to declare their position at the vanguard:
Where is contemporary African art? Not at Bonhams
May 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Achille Mbembe at the Tate Modern
May 15, 2012 By 4 Comments
Over the last six months, the Tate Modern in London has held Topology: Spaces of Transformation, a series of ‘keynote conversations’ which have brought in an impressive array of international intellectuals. Previous events have tackled borders, edges, concepts of north-south, continuity and infinity. The subject of Saturday’s talk was to be no less huge, gathering David Harvey, Drucilla Cornell and Achille Mbembe to speak on ‘The Vast Space-Time of Revolutions Becoming’. Oscar Guardiola Rivera convened the event from a pair of noteworthy purple moccasins, immediately answering the title of his book What If Latin America Ruled the World (“we would all dance better”) then describing the speakers as ‘butterflies’ moving across the globe, ‘commanding’ the space they ‘hover’ above.
Coca-Cola can’t copyright colour: the art of Sokari Douglas Camp
May 14, 2012 By 1 Comment
“Coca-Cola Bird” (pictured) stands facing the corner of the gallery, half-turned towards us in surprise or exhibition, oily red paint spun across the bucket cocked over her head, the same brash colour on the feathered tutu winding around her waist. Her chest sprouts sparkling empty bottles bearing the famous label, and familiar labial body.
Africa as Science Fiction
May 10, 2012 By 10 Comments
Since Sun Ra descended in a breast-shaped Ark to recruit Americans for his planetary Afrotopia, science fiction has played a significant role in representations of African life. The original past represented by Africa as ‘cradle-of-civilization’ has recently been inverted in work which measures futuristic narratives against everyday life on the continent. Now the Arnolfini gallery in Bristol, England, has produced Superpower: Africa in Science Fiction (until July 1st), an exhibition bringing together ten works for which the continent is the point of departure for speculative fiction.
Art and assassination in Angola
May 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Benguela-based human rights group, OMUNGA, attracted international attention last year when it sponsored an international festival of urban art and culture. Organized by a group of Angolan artists and social activists, “Okupapala” was launched as an effort to create visible, collaborative responses to socio-political exclusion. This week, OMUNGA responded to the assassination of one of their volunteers in Catumbela. Their published statement (here in Portuguese) is brief: [Read more...]
Yinka Shonibare’s National Treasure
April 26, 2012 By 2 Comments
The ever-well-informed African Art in London announced this week that Yinka Shonibare’s contribution to the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square — Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle (2010) — has been bought for the nation after a successful campaign by National Maritime Museum and the Art Fund: [Read more...]
Makode Linde–the ‘Swedish Cake’ artist–explains himself
April 24, 2012 By 12 Comments
“It’s a self-portrait. It’s not meant to represent anything, except me.” Makode Linde seems more bemused than irritated when we discuss the huge, worldwide storm that his cake has stirred. “People are talking about this in Africa, in South America,” he says, “there are so many different interpretations of what it means, and I don’t want to take away any of that. But it also really seems to have driven all the trolls out of the woodwork.” Strange to think that before last weekend, it was just another Afromantic.
Parisian Africa: The artistic intersections of the Métropole
April 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Guest Post by Lara N. Dotson-Renta
Paris has always been renowned for its culture and support of the arts. Yet, as France has grown into an ever more pluralistic society, the traditional image of what constitutes art in France must evolve as well. Younger generations of artists, many immigrants of African origin, are now reconfiguring the arts in France on their own terms. Their artistic production embodies experiences of travel and adaptation via the integration of the cultures and traditions of their respective countries of origins along with aesthetic and quotidian experiences that reflect daily life in France. Particularly in the realm of music and film, the blending of African tradition with French popular culture and youth genres has fostered a vibrant arts scene that, while initially seen as of/from the margins of both society and the arts scene, is actually renewing ‘mainstream’ culture in dramatic ways. You just have to scan the pop music featured in Hinda Talhaoui’s Paris is a Continent Series on AIAC. One proponent of this new artistic vision is Alain Kasanda (Apkass), a Franco-Congolese musician, spoken word artist, and founder of the O’rigines Foundation and the Ghett’Out Francophone Film Festival. I interviewed Alain at the Trinity College International Hip-Hop Festival held in Hartford, CT, in March earlier this year. [Read more...]
Soviet cinema and African filmmaking
April 20, 2012 By 2 Comments
A still from 'October' - Idrissa and Irina
In a scene from October (1991) – one of Abderrahmane Sissako’s first films – a young West African student named Idrissa crouches to the ground in a Moscow park, and presses a handful of snow against his face. It’s a baptism of sorts: an immersion into the starkness of black and white, the colour restrictions of Sissako’s low budget production visually reflecting the strict demarcations between races in then-contemporary Russia. Nothing speaks clearer of the racial divide than the white frozen ground pressed against Idrissa’s face, a face blackened and scratched by the now-degraded 16mm. [Read more...]
Swedish Golliwog Cake
April 18, 2012 By 40 Comments
By now, it seems, the whole world has seen the picture. The Swedish Minister of Culture, Lena Adelsohn-Liljeroth, has just cut a piece from the crotch of a cake baked in the image of a distorted African body, complete with golliwog red lips and white eyes. Now, laughing heartily, she’s bent forward as if jokingly feeding a piece of the cake to itself. The whole room eggs her along, laughing, snapping photographs, caught up in the moment. It’s a horrific picture, and it has spread like fire on the web. Two days ago it started popping up in the facebook feeds of acquaintances of the artist who made the cake, Makode Linde. Yesterday it was everywhere in Sweden, in the morning peppering the social media with condemnation and trending on twitter; by noon the National Association of Afro-Swedes had demanded the culture minister’s resignation, and media hell broke loose. By evening, it was already spreading past international borders, and overnight it’s gone on to become a huge worldwide talking point, ending up on the BBC, on HuffPo, on Jezebel, Al Jazeera and condemned in no uncertain terms by activists from South Africa to Berlin, outraged at the picture, the artist, the crowd, the minister and their apologists. It has become a powerful photograph indeed. As such, I think it’s worth talking a little on how it came about. [Read more...]
